In the treatment of metal articles with solvents or solvent vapors, e.g. in the degreasing of such articles, the articles may be collected in a basket and lowered into a treatment chamber which can contain the solvent which is to be used for the treatment and, if desired, a heating device for vaporizing the solvent or raising the temperature thereof.
The apparatus for this purpose can comprise an upper chamber serving as a charging and discharging chamber and located above the lower chamber which serves as the treatment chamber.
The metal articles which are treated in this fashion can include pipes, pipe fittings, screw machine products and other mass produced or serially fabricated, finished, semi-finished and raw articles which may have residues of machining liquids, greases, oils, chips and filings adherent thereto.
The apparatus can also be utilized for the cleaning, degreasing or scouring of ceramic or glass articles.
In drycleaning, dye-setting or the like it is frequently desirable to contact textile fabrics, e.g. piece-goods, garments or other fibrous, web-forming or filamentary material with solvents or solvent vapors. In such cases as well the material may be placed in a basket and contacted with solvent or solvent vapors in a treatment chamber.
In general, when a charging and discharging space or chamber is provided in addition to the treatment chamber, the treatment chamber is not sealed off or, for that matter, sealed from the charging and discharging chamber so that during charging and discharging solvent vapors can emerge, e.g. through a door or opening through which the basket can be charged with the articles or the articles can be removed from the basket.
To prevent solvent escape it is known to provide solvent-treatment machines which an evacuator or the like for carrying off the vapors. The pumps and/or blowers utilized for this purpose are expensive and increase the capital and operating cost of the solvent treatment unit.
In general, therefore, one of the major disadvantages or drawbacks of these earlier solvent treatment systems is that material exchange between the charging and/or discharging space and the treatment space can occur generally unimpeded.